My long journey to Japan
Follow the timeline below to learn how my heart became oriented to ministry in Japan!
2018
Towards the end of college, I was finishing my undergraduate degree in History and Asian American Studies, with a focus on Japanese American history in the Midwest. I was planning to go on a trip to Singapore during the summer to visit a friend before entering the workforce, but the Lord had other plans! One day at church, a short video clip played about an upcoming missions trip to Osaka. These short and simple words that were spoken in the video, “people think that the Japanese way of life is great but it’s not”, had a profound impact on me. I had never been involved with missions before and had no interest in visiting Japan, but I prayed about going, and was filled with a sense of joy from the Holy Spirit. I changed my summer plans and accepted this invitation to Japan.
In Japan, our host pastor took us on many local tours to witness and experience daily life in the Osaka, Kobe, Nara, and Kyoto metropolitan areas. Whether we went to places that are often hidden from tourists, such as the prostitution and homeless areas, or to pristine landmarks and ritzy city centers, I was struck by the pervasive materialism and vices that the Japanese embraced as a way to cope with the loneliness, hopelessness, spiritual darkness, familial brokenness, abuse, and societal pressures that characterize the dystopian realities of living in Japan. I sensed that the Lord wanted me to continue exploring long term missions in Japan, but I responded like Jonah and resisted, struggling to obey this call. I did not want to go to a place that reminded me so much of my own childhood that would require a costly compassion. Yet the Lord was merciful in His consistent promptings to trust Him.
When I returned from the trip, I was still working a summer campus library job. While I thought that this would be a temporary gig until I figured out my post-graduate plans, again I felt the Lord prompting me to take a leap of faith and embrace exploring a career in libraries. After I had relocated back home to the Washington, D.C. area, I attended the Urbana Missions Conference, where I got connected to my first missions organization, SIM, and also met people who knew librarians who were serving on the missions field. I also came across Makoto Fujimura’s book Culture Care, which inspired me to further embrace my interest in the arts and libraries and role as a mediator. I was wondering how my budding interests in Japan, libraries, art, and missions would all fit together.
2019 - 2022
Back home, the Lord opened the doors for me to work at the Smithsonian Institution, where I was able to directly apply my studies in Japanese American history while working with a Japanese supervisor. I also befriended a Japanese exchange student after meeting her in an art gallery, who became very interested in learning more about the Gospel. These friendships allowed me to deepen my understanding of the specific struggles that Japanese women face and also softened my heart towards their emotional and spiritual needs. During this time, a Japan missions trip opportunity became available for the 2020 Olympics through a partnership with SIM and A3. I decided to continue to follow this thread to Japan, but my plans halted as the COVID-19 pandemic put everything on hold. This 3-year waiting period, however, turned out to be a blessing, as it was during this time that the Lord further prepared my heart for living a missional life, expanded my understanding of ministry opportunities to the Japanese, and clarified my gifts that could be used to serve others:
I co-hosted a virtual prayer group with a missionary from SIM, and later started serving with Reaching Japanese for Christ (RJC), a ministry that supports those working with the Japanese diaspora.
I took the Perspectives Course, which deepened my understanding of the history of global missions as well as the great cost and opportunity of going. I was blessed by the virtual Japanese Christian Fellowship Network (JCFN)/Equipper Conference, where I was encouraged by a pastor I had met in Osaka to continue to live faithfully in Washington, D.C. while I waited for Japan to fully open back up.
I started working with local nonprofits where I honed my administrative capabilities, and I enrolled at the University of Maryland to pursue a graduate degree in Library and Information Science. I also started working for my church full time as their office administrator while receiving coaching from a veteran missionary from Japan. This coach helped me to deeply understand how my spiritual gifts, passions, skills, and personality worked together for effective service in ministry.
I continued to meet people who had connections to Japan in the Washington, D.C. area and immersed myself in Japanese culture and events. I even shared my testimony to a group of Japanese students based in Asia over Zoom at 4am!
I started attending therapy to get the healing I needed from my childhood, identify areas of growth, and lay down these burdens so that I could be fully available for ministry overseas.
2022 - 2025
After my first year of graduate school in 2022, I was encouraged by a mentor to attend a library conference hosted by the American Theological Library Association. There, I attended a newcomers welcome event, where I ran into one of my professors from a theological librarianship class. She told me that she had someone for me to meet - this person turned out to be the academic dean of Christ Bible Institute (CBI) in Nagoya, Japan! My professor knew his mentor who had similarly encouraged him to attend the conference. I was blown away by how the Lord had worked out everything for our good to connect and for me to see how years of preparation and exploring culminated into the perfect opportunity to serve in Japan.
In 2023, a year after this meeting, Japan’s borders had fully opened back up and I was finally able to go on a vision trip to explore opportunities to serve long term in Japan. On this trip, I met a family who had connections to Northwestern University and the very community that I had worked with on my undergraduate thesis on Japanese American history in Chicago. They encouraged me to find a place to explore dabbling in my interests for a few months. When I visited CBI as well as an arts ministry, Gallery Nani, in Nagoya on my last day in Japan, I knew that they were the places where I could explore how to serve the Japanese in the future.
In 2024, I started my internship application with Mission to the World. While I was initially aiming to go for 2 months, the Lord had once again changed my plans so that I am now going for a 2 year residency. This will give me more time to be immersed in the culture, learn the language, and discern what my long term calling will be in ministry. It was a long and emotional discernment and application process, but I was finally approved in 2025 and am looking forward to starting life in Japan!
Journey to Japan with me!
You can navigate your way through this site to learn about how I became a Christian, my long journey to Japan, why I feel led to serve in Nagoya for my initial term, and how you can join on this journey. Feel free to add me on the socials below!
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